EMFA 603: Biodiversity and Conservation of Aquatic Resources

This course is designed to equip the student with skills to enable him/her to clearly understand the issues of biodiversity, conservation and the various techniques employed in their assessment and monitoring. The student will be introduced to biodiversity assessment techniques, strategies, habitat mapping; Conservation priorities (prioritizing species and habitats, hot spots of global marine, coastal and freshwater biodiversity); Monitoring biodiversity (bias and accuracy, sampling, quadrats; and transects, mark-release-recapture, monitoring environmental variables); National biodiversity-related conventions; Threats to coastal biodiversity strategies and plans; Marine protected areas.